Dead Zone Archives -

I found myself on a plane this week to mingle and speak at the Independent Natural Food Retailers Association (INFFRA) conference in Minnesota. As the great desert gave way to the patchwork of midwestern fields, I was awed by the amount of food being produced beneath me.

The vast quantity of land and resources we have concentrated in this central breadbasket provides an abundance of inexpensive food.

In some ways, our food has never been so cheap, and in other ways, it has never been so expensive. Continue reading “Can We Really Afford to Pay For Cheap Food Any Longer?” →

Environment, Social Implications in Agriculture, What is Organic

Unbuckling the Corn-Belt – One Drop at a Time

August 31, 2017 Melody Meyer

There is an African proverb that speaks to our modern agricultural dilemma. It is said that “dirty water cannot be washed.” Yet we continue to pollute our waters with our agricultural practices in the heartland of the continent. Corn and soy are planted in vast expanses, modified to withstand extreme applications of pesticides and herbicides. They are also reliant on vast devotions of synthetic fertilizers.

All these agricultural inputs end up in our waterways and drinking water, harming our health and the environment. There is no easy method to “wash away” these pollutants so pervasive in our waters. Continue reading “Unbuckling the Corn-Belt – One Drop at a Time” →

Culinary Delights, Environment, Social Implications in Agriculture, What is Organic

Food and the Gulf of Mexico – All Rivers Flow into the Sea

August 16, 2017 Melody Meyer

I was in New Orleans recently with the intention of savoring the food as much as to partake of friends and family. I set about on a culinary expedition of the Cajun-bayou kind mixed up with great helpings of French influence. The food was rich and plentiful, southern soul steeped in Louis X1V sauces. Fried chicken, okra, sausage and crawfish all graced my palate and plate.

Thus I debauched at the bottom of the mighty Mississippi, a land of plenty where the nation’s corn-basket spills out upon an ancient delta rife with issues. So I pondered… How is it that my food and the Gulf of Mexico are intrinsically connected? Continue reading “Food and the Gulf of Mexico – All Rivers Flow into the Sea” →